Komodo User Guide

Release Notes

Welcome to Komodo, ActiveState's Integrated Development Environment (IDE). This document accompanies Komodo version 2.0.1 for Windows and Linux.

New in Komodo 2.0.1 for Linux

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Release History

Komodo 2.0.1 for Windows: October, 2002

Komodo 2.0 beta 3 for Linux: October, 2002

Komodo 2.0 beta 2 for Linux: September, 2002

Komodo 2.0 for Windows: September, 2002

Komodo 2.0 beta 2 for Windows: September, 2002

Komodo 2.0 beta 1 for Linux: September, 2002

Komodo 2.0 beta 1 for Windows: August, 2002

Komodo 1.2.9: July, 2002

The following issues were addressed in Komodo 1.2.x releases:

Editor

  • (Windows only) Syntax checking now works properly for files located on a network.
  • (Tcl, Perl and PHP) Double-clicking variables now selects the variable prefix.
  • When dragging and dropping text into the editor pane, Komodo no longer attempts to open a new file.
  • When dragging and dropping text from the editor pane to other parts of Komodo, Komodo was crashing. This has been fixed.
  • When calltips are displayed, tip highlighting now progresses as statement components are entered in the editor.
  • When opening large HTML files in the editor, Komodo no longer displays a syntax error warning.
  • Search and replace strings containing backslashes are now handled properly.
  • The error regarding invalid regular expressions during search and replace has been fixed.
  • Templates in language directories are now correctly included in the language categories.

General Debugging

  • Watched variables can be manipulated regardless of whether or not the debugger is running.
  • When the debugger is running, use Ctrl+F10 to run the debugger to the current cursor position.
  • When the debugger is running, the current line is now highlighted. The highlighting is dimmed when a stack other than the current stack is selected.
  • The debugger now positions the current line in the middle of the editor pane.

Perl Editing and Debugging

  • Socket errors in Perl debugger connections have been fixed by the addition of a new configuration item. Select Edit|Preferences|Debugger, and enter the socket port in the Perl Listener Port field. The "CallKomodo" configuration of the PERLDB_OPTS is no longer used, and can be removed. See Debugging Perl Remotely for more information.
  • Support for the overload.pm module has been added.
  • Evals in included files no longer fail when stepping into the included file.
  • "Here" doc styling is now supported.

PHP Editing and Debugging

  • Komodo now fails gracefully if the php.ini file does not exist in the specified location.
  • Autocompletion is now available inside strings.
  • The icon on the Komodo start page now correctly shows when PHP has been enabled.
  • Autocompletion no longer fails inside certain string elements.
  • Syntax checking now functions on large PHP files.
  • PHP configuration is correctly reloaded if it is changed.
  • Autocompletion now picks up changes in the php.ini file.
  • The PHP 4.1 / 4.2 debugger extension is included with the Komodo distribution. Note that the 4.1 debugger extension functions with PHP version 4.2.

Tcl Editing and Debugging

  • Breakpoints can now be set in included files.
  • For Tcl Dev Kit users, Prowrap was being incorrectly called, rather than Procheck.

Other

  • PDK version 4.0 is now supported.
  • The Rx Toolkit has better font styling.
  • To speed initial startup, sample Web services are no longer added to the Komodo Preferences.

Web Services

  • When parsing WSDLs, there is now schema support for complex types (however, not all schema is supported).
  • The WSDL parser now parses all XMethods.com WSDL files.

Komodo 1.2.7 RC1 for Windows and Linux: March, 2002

Komodo 1.2 for Windows and Linux: December, 2001

Web Service Consumption

Komodo provides Web service support! Keep a library of Web service bookmarks; quickly add Web services to Perl, Python or PHP files (including automatic language support like CallTips and AutoCompletion for Web service objects); browse your Web service bookmark library in the Komodo User Guide.

Share Recipes with the ASPN Cookbook

Komodo provides a fast, easy way to share recipes. Submit your favorite Perl regular expression or Python, Tcl or XSLT code snippet to the ASPN Cookbook.

Enhanced Editing

The Komodo editor detects files that have changed on disk, and gives you the option to reload. Komodo also remembers the "state" of each file in the Most Recently Used list, including cursor position, bookmarks, fold points, language association, and whitespace preference. Undo changes to a file using the Revert File function. Quickly select blocks of code when performing editing functions; configure text to auto-wrap in the editor and to auto-save at the interval you prefer.

Keyboard Shortcuts

New keyboard shortcuts include Ctrl+Insert (copy), Shift+Delete (cut), Shift+Insert (paste) and Ctrl+<debug command> (suppress Debug Options dialog). Note that you can also use the Ctrl key in conjunction with the Debugging Toolbar buttons to suppress display of the Debugging Options dialog.

Find and Replace

Search and / or Replace a word or phrase in all documents open in the Komodo editor. Use the new tab on the Output Pane to view all results from Find or Replace operations.

Templates and Macros

Code faster with language-specific templates. Create custom templates, and embed variables for date and time stamps.

Perl Dev Kit Support

Use Komodo in conjunction with the Perl Dev Kit to build Windows executables, services and controls written in Perl.

Tcl Support

With a membership to ASPN Tcl, use Komodo's syntax checking and debugging with Tcl.

FTP Support

Edit remote files on FTP servers; add remote files to projects; save files to remote FTP servers. Use Komodo's Preferences to configure connection information for servers you use frequently.

Komodo User Guide

Search the User Guide or find a word or phrase in the current page; navigate using the Table of Contents; change the font size. Take a visual tour of the Komodo Workspace, the Komodo Debugger, the Komodo Editor or the Rx Toolkit.

Komodo Tutorials

Learn about new languages and language-specific Komodo features in the Tutorials.

PHP

Now supports AutoCompletion.

Fonts and Colors

Customize the display of fonts and colors for elements of every language supported by Komodo.

CGI Debugging Emulation

Emulate a CGI environment while debugging on your local machine by configuring server environment variables and form input.

Enhanced Debugging

Expanded Debugging Options remember your debug settings from one session to another; view HTML output on the Output tab; configure the Remote Debugging Listener Port; enter program input on the Output tab.

Run Commands

Interact with the command line using the Run Commands function.

Internationalization

Set the default encoding for files in Komodo's Preferences. While Komodo does not yet support editing outside of the English character set, non-English characters in existing files will be preserved.

Komodo 1.2 beta 1 for Linux: November 2001

Komodo 1.2 beta 2 for Windows: November, 2001

Komodo 1.2 beta 1 for Windows: October, 2001

Komodo 1.1: June, 2001

PHP Debugging Enjoy PHP syntax checking and debugging with Komodo. You can configure Komodo to debug PHP files locally or within a web server environment. For more information, see Debugging Programs in the Online Help.

XSLT Debugging - This release supports XSLT debugging. Komodo allows you to view your XSLT file, your XML input file, and your output simultaneously. You can even open an XML file on your web server and transform the file while you debug your XSLT program. We've also improved the sample XSLT file in our Sample Project. For more information on XSLT debugging, see Debugging Programs in the Online Help.

Tcl support - You can now use Komodo to edit your Tcl files, including syntax coloring, code folding, autocomplete and calltips. We added a Tcl file to our Sample Project. If you have Tcl Dev Kit, you can enjoy Tcl syntax checking within Komodo. We plan to include stand-alone syntax checking that does not require Tcl Dev Kit in an upcoming release. Komodo does not yet support Tcl debugging.

Improved Performance - This release is based on the latest Mozilla tree, which includes an optimized code base. Performance improvements include faster installation and startup and faster response while you type or change files. Komodo responds much faster during debugging, when opening files and switching between files, and when loading the File Associations pane in the Preferences dialog.

Support for more languages - You can now use Komodo to edit Ruby and other languages, such as VB and SQL.

Improvements for Komodo on Linux - You can now resize the Komodo workspace, you can use fixed-width fonts, and you can debug Perl scripts if you have Perl 5.6 installed and configured.

XML Autocomplete - Komodo now features autocomplete for your XML files. When you type an open angle-bracket "<", Komodo lists the elements in your file. Komodo XML autocomplete also lists tag attributes and suggests attribute values for certain values. XML Autocomplete also helps you close your tags.

Expanded Find and Replace dialog - You can now use regular expressions in your find and replace strings, you can search through folded text, and more.

Partial Unicode support - Komodo supports ASCII, Latin-1 and Unicode (UTF-8, UCS-2 or UCS-4) encoding. If you use Komodo to edit a file that has a different character encoding than those mentioned above, non-English characters may be removed when you save the file.

Komodo 1.0: April, 2001

Komodo .1: November, 2000

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Known Issues

To view the status of outstanding Komodo issues, including those that have been fixed in this release, or to add comments or additional issues, please visit the Komodo Bug Database.

Installation Issues

  • If you get the error "Internal Error 2738. CHECK_INSTALLDIR" during installation, reinstall the Windows scripting host. See Software Requirements on Windows in the Installation Guide.
  • Windows NT users may need to manually move their license file from \WINNT\Profiles\[username]\ActiveState to \WINNT\Profiles\[username]\Application Data\ActiveState.
  • Komodo version 2.0 is not supported on the Windows 95 platform.
  • Windows NT4: Komodo updates certain system .dlls that are dependent on other .dlls installed with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Therefore, NT4 users must have Internet Explorer version 4.01 or greater installed on their system.
  • If you upgraded your system from Win9x/WinME to WinNT/2K, ensure that your ComSpec environment variable is configured to %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe (for example, C:\system32\cmd.exe). There was a bug in the Microsoft Windows installer that did not update the variable from its original value of command.com.
  • Visual Studio 6 users with Service Pack 1 need to upgrade to Visual Studio 6 Service Pack 3 or greater before installing Komodo.
  • The Komodo installer requires up to 230 MB in your TMP directory (as indicated by the value of your 'TMP' environment variable) during installation, even if you plan to install Komodo to another drive. If you do not have the required space on this drive, manually set the 'TMP' environment variable to another directory with sufficient space. Ensure you have enough space, temporarily, for installation.
  • If you try to install Komodo on Windows and the MSI install fails with error 2355, your MSI file is corrupt. Please download Komodo again and re-run the MSI install.
  • There are known issues regarding the installation of PHP on Windows Millennium systems; please refer to the PHP site for installation information.

Startup Issues

  • If a language that is installed on your system is disabled or not available (in the Preferences, or on the Getting Started page), check that the location of the language interpreter is specified in your system PATH variable.
  • On some versions of Windows NT, a dialog will report a missing symbol during startup. If this message occurs, the Rx Toolkit will not function.
  • The first time Komodo is run after installation, it must register a number of components with the operating system. This causes the first launch to be considerably slower than subsequent launches.
  • Certain programs may cause problems launching Komodo. For example, server programs such as SQL Server are known to be problematic. Also, Norton Anti-Virus (NAV), or more specifically, the File System Realtime Protection feature is problematic. If Komodo fails to load, examine the applications you are running, and try stopping those that might be conflicting with Komodo.

Editing Issues

  • Regardless of the length of a line of code in the editor pane, the horizontal scroll bar will only allow horizontal scrolling to approximately 300 characters.
  • The editing preview is not provided for XML files.
  • The macro recorder will record events that it can't handle, such as the opening of dialogs. The only dialog that can be opened via a macro is the Find dialog; other dialogs will cause the macro to stop.
  • If the Windows taskbar is set to auto-hide and Komodo is maximized, the the syntax error tooltips displayed over the syntax checking icon will not be visible.
  • The "Edit with Komodo..." option in Windows Explorer will only open the file if it the first file opened in this Komodo session, or if Komodo is already running but has no files open.
  • SCL and NASSL format Web services are not supported.
  • Application Data redirection on Windows: When you install Komodo, if you redirect the files that Komodo expects to have permissions to install in your Application Data folder, Komodo and Mozilla can close unexpectedly.
  • The Komodo editor currently does not support editing in non-English characters. You can open files stored in non-English encodings, but you cannot edit them.
  • Tooltips longer than one line only display the first line due to an issue with Mozilla.
  • Cheyenne Antivirus Realtime Monitor and Komodo on Windows 9x - When RealMon is set to monitor outgoing files (or both incoming and outgoing files) Komodo's syntax checking doesn't function.
  • Python Autocomplete is limited to the Python modules opened by Komodo; if a Python module is not opened by Komodo, autocomplete tips will be limited to attributes that have already been used in the current file.
  • On slow networks, users may notice performance degradation when editing files on network machines. Performance can be improved by disabling the Komodo function that checks if files on disk have changed. See Preferences.

Debugging Issues

  • Komodo's debugger is meant to debug single threads. Newly-created threads or processes (for example, through the use of fork()) are not under debugger control.
  • The Perl debugger intermittently fails to realize that the program is done debugging, and still indicates a current line even though the program is done. This is especially likely if the program reads from stdin and is executed in a separate console.
  • The Perl debugger interprets email addresses as list variables.
  • Perl strings with an escaped @ symbol show up as an array.
  • If you set breakpoints and then subsequently add lines above the breakpoints, Komodo resets the breakpoints when debugging starts.
  • If a breakpoint is set in an included file (called with "use" or "require"), Komodo will stop on the first line of that file. Continuing with F5 (or another debugger command) will then break on the breakpoints in that file.
  • Due to the way the core Perl interpreter works, it is not possible to step over "require" statements.
  • When using Debian and Komodo, Komodo does not auto-detect the existence of PHP if it is installed via the Debian package manager. This is due to the fact that Debian, by default, installs PHP with the name "php4", and not "php".
  • You cannot use the 'freestanding' option when debugging Perl Applications created with the PDK in Komodo. Instead, build a 'dependant' executable, which requires a local install of Perl.
  • The "Delete temp files after each run" option generates an error when debugging an application with the Perl Dev Kit interface.
  • The variable watcher does not work when debugging \\machine\d$\path\to\perl_script.pl. It does work when opening the same file via a UNC path that does *not* include a '$' character.
  • Under some circumstances, Komodo cannot find PHP interpreters if their location is specified in a path that contains spaces. For example, if PHP is installed in the directory "C:\Program Files\Apache Group\php\php.exe", Komodo may not be able to find the PHP interpreter. Use the shortened format of the path to specify the location (for example, "C:\PROGRA~1\APACHE~1\php\php.exe").
  • Debugging on Windows Me/98: You cannot debug in a separate console on Win9x machines.
  • If your script has syntax errors, the debugger can fail without warning.
  • If Komodo gives an error when you start the debugger, you need to exit and restart Komodo.
  • When you're debugging remote applications, Komodo fails if the remote process does not have valid stdout and stderr handles. GUI applications, such as those started with "wperl.exe" or "pythonw.exe", or those using the Pythonwin or wxPython frameworks, or those with certain embedded applications, can have invalid stdout and stderr handles. Until we resolve this issue, try to run and debug your remote program under perl.exe or python.exe.
  • Python, XSLT and PHP require TCP/IP to be installed and properly configured, even if you are debugging scripts locally. While TCP/IP is configured by default on most systems, earlier versions of Windows 95 may require manual TCP/IP configuration.

Other Issues

  • Some version of Windows NT version 4 generate the startup error "The procedure entry point __lc_collate_cp could not be located in the dynamic link library MSVCRT.DLL". The same versions may have display problems with the Rx Toolkit. This is because Komodo requires a version of MSVCRT.DLL which is more recent than that installed in Windows NT4. Many applications upgrade the DLL on installation, but Komodo does not at present. As a workaround, install another program that updates MSVCRT.DLL, such as ActivePython 2.2. After reboot, you can uninstall the application; the updated MSVCRT.DLL will not be removed.
  • PHP 4.3 is not supported in this version of Komodo.
  • After upgrading Windows 9x or Windows Me to Windows 2000, the COMSPEC environment variable is still set to "command.com", rather than being updated to "cmd.exe". Komodo runs into several problems if COMSPEC is set to "command.com" on Windows 2000 and XP.
  • In file picker dialogs that display a list of files, when "All files" is specified, files that begin with a period are not displayed.
  • If the Perforce connection cannot be established, checking the status of files in a Perforce repository will hang Komodo.
  • The Output tab cuts off lines at 250 characters.
  • Macros will not record certain commands, including (but possibly not limited to) Ctrl-Shift-b|r|e|d (toggle toolbars or button text), Ctrl-Shift-n (new default file), and View as Language menu items.
  • The "Import from File System" function is very slow on large file systems.
  • If you are using CVS Source Code Control, note that the very first time you login to a repository, cvs.exe fails to create the .cvspass file correctly and will return an error. Repeat the command to login a second time and correctly generate the file. This is a CVS bug.
  • If you are using CVS Source Code Control on Windows 98 or Me, the environment variables HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH must be configured on your system. Typically, HOMEDRIVE is set to "c:", and HOMEPATH is set to "\".

Linux Issues

  • On Linux, install Komodo into a directory path that only includes alphanumeric characters. Komodo is known to have trouble with paths that include spaces and some non-alphanumeric characters.
  • Filenames or paths containing non-ASCII characters cannot be opened remotely.
  • The Editor pane has refresh problems when Komodo menus are moved over the editor pane. Scrolling or resizing the editor pane will force a refresh.
  • Key bindings defined in the window manager (such as KDE) take precedence over Komodo key bindings. In the case of conflicts, you must either change the Komodo key bindings or the window manager key bindings.
  • You cannot relocate an existing Komodo installation to a new directory. You must uninstall Komodo from the existing location and reinstall it in the new location.
  • The Komodo license will be sent to the email address you provided during registration. You must install this license. You will get an error if you try to install the license from within Komodo by selecting a "License" link.

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